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PRIME Minister Imran Khan chairs a meeting to review progress on formulation of a roadmap for construction of five million houses across the country.—Online

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday presided over a meeting to review progress on formulation of a roadmap for the construction of five million houses across the country and decided that the project would be monitored and implemented directly by the Prime Minister Office.

It was decided in the meeting that the prime minister would take the “ownership” of the initiative to ensure smooth implementation and remove any administrative bottlenecks, says an official announcement made by the PM Office.

Mr Khan directed the committee to finalise its recommendations regarding formulation of a comprehensive plan of action with delineated timelines within two weeks for early launching of the housing programme.

PM will take ‘ownership’ of initiative to remove administrative bottlenecks

The secretary of housing briefed the prime minister about the current situation vis-à-vis the annual demand and shortfall in the housing sector. He also identified various options regarding ensuring availability of land bank, raising for the required finances through different modes and undertaking administrative and legal measures needed to encourage private sector and foreign investors towards the PM’s housing initiative.

The prime minister, in his remarks, said provision of five million houses, equipped with all basic facilities and regularisation of katchi abadis/slums, was the foremost priority of the government being a part of the election manifesto of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

The prime minister said that construction of affordable housing initiative would not only provide shelter to the homeless, but would generate huge economic activity by providing millions of jobs and boosting all industries linked to the housing sector.

The prime minister said that besides availability of vast state lands across the country, utilisation of prime lands of the state guest houses and other government-owned accommodations and properties in Punjab and Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa alone could generate billions of rupees for the five million housing scheme.

Talking to Dawn, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry explained that the five million housing project would be monitored and implemented by the PM Office, instead of the Ministry of Housing.

The minister said that the government aimed to “acquire all the illegal lands from the rich and influential people and give it to the poor”. He added that the anti-encroachment drive currently under way in various cities was also part of the scheme. He said that the government would soon reveal all details of the housing scheme.

Earlier, through his official account on social media website Twitter, Mr Khan said that Pakistan was sitting on hundreds of billions of rupees in “dead capital” in the form of state land and rest houses and official residences built on that land.

The prime minister said that he had come to know that 34,459 kanals of the state-owned land was located in rural areas while 17,035 kanals was in urban areas.

“Just the urban land with buildings is worth over Rs300bn,” Mr Khan tweeted.

“A country that has to borrow money to pay interest on its loans is sitting on huge amounts of dead capital in the form of the government-owned land with buildings,” Mr Khan said.

He said that the loans the country had been taking were burdening its future generations, regretting that the daily interest liability was a whopping Rs5bn.

Comments (68) Closed

Two weeks is hardly enough time to agree on a letter-head let alone a fully baked plan for 5 million housing units. No wonder the govt. has to step back from it's decisions every time.

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M Ayub

Sep 11, 2018 08:19am

We still remember in Karachi after creation of Pakistan ,the Revenue deptt,KMC ,PWD and later Societies and l KDA used to develop land and sell thousands of plots to needy thru ballot.They used to charged very minimum rates around Rs 3 to 5 per sq yd in 1950 for areas like PECHS, Nazimabad and DHA, Rs 7 per sq yd in 1960 for areas like North Nazimabad and F B Area and lately Buffer Zone, North Karachi,Gulshan e Iqbal, Gulistan Jahaur at very reasonable price. For greed and absolute power this land business was taken by mafias after 1990 and everyone know how land is developed and sold at unrealistic price and who suck the blood of commoners.Imran Khan clearly know what is happening and his government is developing 5 million plots and houses and the same will be at genuine price.

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Syed Ali

Sep 11, 2018 08:31am

There are ways to build low cost highly energy efficient housing on mass scale, needs a differen mind set and why add to “dead capital”.

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Qaiser Ahmed

Sep 11, 2018 09:01am

Just curious. In the picture, there are five people in the background. What is their role?

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K

Sep 11, 2018 09:07am

Land is illiquid property, its worth is 300b doesn't mean you can sell it overnight and get 300b out of it. If you got no buyers it will fall to less than half its value, then you are forced to keep it rather than sell it. Most of property dealer use ill gotten wealth to buy land, so they will not come forward to buy fearing government will probe their source of wealth. So no buyers

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K

Sep 11, 2018 09:16am

50 million homes let's do some math, assuming land is free and each House costs 10,000,000 pkr. And assuming 125pkr=1$, it would cost government 400b$ for this 50 million homes. It's a welfare scheme so no money will be generated on this investment, so investing 400b$ on something that will not generate money is not something pakistan can afford now. Investment in job generation schemes will be wise choice rather than freebies

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ehalin

Sep 11, 2018 09:17am

A money making scan indeed. Has he built all the needed hospitals and schools already? Has he provided all the civic services to the already built houses already. Only difference between building expensive metros and housing schemes is added advantage of "land grabbing" in housing schemes. No doubt Malik Riaz sb is one of the richest persons in Pakistan. Next would be probably IK or few of his associates.

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Tamza

Sep 11, 2018 09:22am

Security/bodyguard, and advisers!

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Parvez

Sep 11, 2018 09:25am

And the Budget for these 5 million houses ?

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Z

Sep 11, 2018 09:28am

Make sure houses for only poor people and families.

Bar party workers and government employees or Gov contractors taking it.

Houses non transferable or for sale.

Prefer Labour workers.

Income lower than 20000RP a month and more than 1 kid.

Prefer kids with disability or one parent unable to work because disability.

Widows with kids at highest priority.

Verify Applicant don't own any property or wealth.

If found applicants lied than seized property and 5 years imprisonment with 200,000 fine.

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Orakzai

Sep 11, 2018 09:29am

Is there any plan for such houses for poor Fata people and if there is please construct one such house for my me and my children in Fata , my children sleeping in open in night and under the tree in day time. Like me there are thousands whose childrens are derived of basic facilities.

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Najum

Sep 11, 2018 09:34am

Why is a private friend Aneel Mussrat (British Student Property Developer) doing in the cabinet meeting. NAB would have been all over the place had this been Nawaz Sharif.

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Z

Sep 11, 2018 09:36am

@Qaiser Ahmed 5 background people each getting more than 200,000 rupees a month plus other benefits which are costing poor people millions a year.

I hope IK will give them some work to do and don't pay them just to sit for Photo session and clapping at the end.

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Nadir Phenku

Sep 11, 2018 09:53am

PM sb in order to do these 5M housing units you need to make cement affordable and you can only do that by crushing the cement cartel created in the previous government era. These cartels have even challenged the ccps authority. Pls take action

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Amjad Durrani Engineer USA

Sep 11, 2018 10:26am

A gigantic undertaking which if materializes would create a huge economic ripple effect involving employment to construction labor, revenue to construction material producing industries, small businesses etc. Keeping in view this very large number of small housing units, scattered around the country, the govt.besides preparing a feability study of each location, by applying system engineering approach, should consider setting up of prefabrication of essential component of such units. Prefabrication of similar units are cost effective, time saver if mass produced in factories & its quality control is much easier than custom made housing units. Designing,prefabrication & erection of such housing units are more efficient & cheaper than others. Prefabricated housing while attracting private investment, will reduce financial impact on its kitty. But to accomplish such construction work & that too scattered locations, the govt. shall need a team of very well experienced construction managers

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saqib ghumman

Sep 11, 2018 10:29am

Same like sharif family keep the contract to yourself...

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Adnan

Sep 11, 2018 10:31am

Good initiative esp.interesting to see some timeliness for once. For most other things in Pakistan they always have a date for the next step but not the end date so good to see deadlines.

@Javed: You don't need a fully baked plan from day one. It just needs a few day workshops with the right people to brainstorm ideas and put together a high level roadmap. They can refine the roadmap over time as needed.

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suchbaath

Sep 11, 2018 10:37am

Hope no one is pipe dreaming to make more U-turns in future, so ensure plans are realistic.

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Concerned Citizen

Sep 11, 2018 10:52am

At least give six months to complete feasibility studies and work on alternatives. Rushed decisions and plans never see the light of day. Careful evaluation is always essential before the start of a project and in my opinion a single house requires more than 2 weeks of planning, While here 5 million homes and two weeks. Please be realistic.

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Nadeem

Sep 11, 2018 10:54am

Dear PM! you are going to suffer lot of resistance in converting this dream into reality; from bureaucracy, private investors, private builders, local administrations, hon'ble courts & even from within your own cabinet/ party. But if your worthy office could do it would be a miracle like achievement. Even poorest people are ready to pay some reasonable cost. Just do it & do it for poor people/ homeless just. No PM has ever think over it even. Stay strong.

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Gen Khan Azaam

Sep 11, 2018 10:56am

You lost my vote when you asked one of your EAC. Advisors to resign due to pressure from the mullahs

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Atif

Sep 11, 2018 10:57am

IK knows the secret to get unlimited money. He will ask for donations !!

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Atif

Sep 11, 2018 10:59am

@Parvez, he will ask overseas Pakistanis for donations.

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Nawaz

Sep 11, 2018 10:59am

@K Agree, the main reason for real estate price hike is the ill gotten and untaxed wealth.

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Private Advisor

Sep 11, 2018 11:00am

This is sheer waste of money. This is PTI's "Bus Plan"

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Khalid Javaid

Sep 11, 2018 11:09am

@K
Fix your maths please first.

Total planned houses are 5 Millions.
They are supposed to be low cost houses for the the homeless & the poor. Each such house may cost maximum of around 1.5Million to 2M PKR & not 10 Millions as you assumed as it will constructed on either 5 marlas or 3 Marlas (equiv. 1125 sq ft).
Construction activity will trigger chain of economic activities. Construction parasite industry operators will benefit.

Rubbishing everything announced will lead to no solution. Accept the plan in good faith & let the things move smoothly instead of spreading the venom around.

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Arif Shaikh

Sep 11, 2018 11:22am

It's a very good way forward. If IK also announces that Pakistanis can adopt houses and also can utilize the housing scheme and give to the poor workers of their choice or known to the donor.

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Syed

Sep 11, 2018 11:24am

Should have had a plan before you promised 5 million homes. This policy of deciding first and thinking later is why there are so many U-turns.

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atif

Sep 11, 2018 11:30am

two suggestion 1:: Create new cities and built homes there rather making existing cities liveable, make new cities shift some office there would also take load off from existing cities, kindly do not take decision in hurry while you can optimise and achieve much from this opportunity
2:: housing colonies shouldn't be given gas connection for heating purpose(room heating and water heating) as it a ttal waste.. rather a central boiler system and radiator for houses is a far far better solution ..houses will be warm and also hot water will be available. as per my calculation you can save 70 80 % of natural gas by doing that. and will also be easy on pocket for users

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Karido

Sep 11, 2018 11:36am

Buy upgrading the land record system and securing the ownership rights , the Government can generate more cash than by selling our assets. No property owner will mind paying a few thousand rupees to get a precise document that fully defines his/her property rather than depending on the medival

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Karido

Sep 11, 2018 11:44am

@K sorry , but your math is all wrong

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Chinpaksaddique

Sep 11, 2018 11:58am

This is the best PM. PMIK is a guiding light for the democracy, judiciary, army and people. Everyone is behind him. Pakistan Zindabad

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Zulfi

Sep 11, 2018 12:14pm

@K

These are going to be low cost housing units (most likely flats) with basic facilities aimed at the deprived segments of the society (most likely in the form of tower blocks). I think the cost will be much less than what you have assumed (Rs 1 crore per house)

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Usman Chaudhri

Sep 11, 2018 12:28pm

@Javed i guess five years from previous regimes wasn't enough either, so, i would rather fail fast but try sooner.

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Ahmed

Sep 11, 2018 12:39pm

Ambitious election promises can only be achieved through a magic wand.

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Falcon1

Sep 11, 2018 01:03pm

I wish Imran Khan will slow down and star timplementing the plans in order of priority. Less than a month in office, and overly ambitious daily pronoucements will inevitably lead to inlfated expectations by the public. If he fails to deliver, people will become disillusioned and stop paying attention to this speeches and bold claims.

Some of his plans require careful study, preparation, financing and delivered in phases. To expect mirales in two weeks, without underlying elements to make it a reality, is in my opinion, being too naive; 5 million homes , even in his five year term, is fairly unrealistic, simply due to lack of funds. So please slow down, and do what you can with the resources which are already available. To announce such lofty ambitions based on projected future revenues, recovery from NS or overseas Pakistani investments, tax base or spending cuts is not being in line with stark reality.

Slow, but steady, wins the race. Slow down and take a step at a time.

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khanm

Sep 11, 2018 01:08pm

interesting ... housing alone will not solve the problem of social evils we are facing.. sir ..with due respect... make sure we don't create complacency .. we have to work hard to achieve and earn it ...help is different than handouts...folks...Public housing is more than just a place to live, public housing programs should provide opportunities for residents and their families and that should be our pledge and a must... good luck

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Garib Awam ki_Awaz

Sep 11, 2018 01:16pm

Good decision to build 5 million small houses for the poor and needy people. It will take careful planning, effective use of all resources, budget and time to implement such plan. Monitoring and getting progress reports on forthrightly basis is good idea, but, first you have to have a business and project plan with time frame - so do we have this?

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ABE

Sep 11, 2018 01:18pm

Imran, please adhere to the theory and practice of delivering more than you promise. Not the other way around,
When you surprise everyone with results, better than expected, you will please many and amaze the rest.

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citizen

Sep 11, 2018 01:59pm

5 milion houses action plan in 2 weeks...10million new jobs in 85 days !! certainly our republic will enter in to Guiness records and will be unbeaten till the end of this century..

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Asim

Sep 11, 2018 02:09pm

@Javed I was about to say almost the same. He seems to have no idea how projects progress, let alone mega civil projects.

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Tufail

Sep 11, 2018 02:20pm

wait. you mean his promise during the election campaign was not even planned. Just say anything emotional and make fool of our nation, and later think about it. The Plan should have been there long ago, he should be in execution phase by now. This govt. already taken more the 5 BIG u-Turns. Seems like the will make a fool out of them much quicker then PMLN.

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Shahid

Sep 11, 2018 02:58pm

Build 5 million houses from the money obtained by selling government properties, rent them out to less fortunate lower class citizens, earn money on it while ellivating life style of people which wont cost them fortune!? Kudo PM! Something so simple yet no one in the past thought about it...

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BAXAR

Sep 11, 2018 03:13pm

@Ahmed "Ambitious election promises can only be achieved through a magic wand." Or some courage. Courage to collect tax from the rich.

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Rani Sharma

Sep 11, 2018 03:23pm

There are millions of vacant apartments and houses. Make it easy for the owners to rent them out by a combination of incentives and laws. Example:

guarantee that the owners can get their property back when the lease is over.

Any damage will have to be paid for by the renter.

Make all or part of the rental income tax free.

Make keeping apartments vacant for more than one year illegal.

These are only some of the steps that can be taken to reduce the housing shortage. And the steps need not be permanent, only till the shortage eases.

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Shafiq Ahmad

Sep 11, 2018 03:51pm

@K sorry for your maths. Govt is not making 10million rupees Houses so your figure is inflated nearly 5 times.
Then govt is not giving it free so no loss of revenue.
And construction is a labour intensive industry so a lot of job creation.

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ShahNoor Syed, USA

Sep 11, 2018 04:06pm

What, 5 million houses plan in 2 weeks ???
Imran is Acting more and more like an immature dictator.

Even Kim Jong Un of North Korea is displaying maturity and statesmanship.

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Ahmed

Sep 11, 2018 04:21pm

Those " vast state lands " and the government owned buildings belong to the people and cannot be disposed off without their will.

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hani

Sep 11, 2018 04:36pm

there's a financial crisis that calls for austerity and he wants to spend money on building homes. yes this is required but now is not the time for it.

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Moth

Sep 11, 2018 06:52pm

Great initiative but no creation of slums out of slums. Shelter does not mean a shelter. It is more than that. No shanty towns. IK sahib please do not hurry. Take your time. Take at least one full year in planing this program. 5 million housing units is a big big program. It took US over 80 years after Great Depression to provide over 7 million subsidized units (under different programs). The issue is highly complex and has to be addressed properly. You need vision (100 years ahead of thinking ) to address this issue along with determination.

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Amjad Durrani Engineer USA

Sep 11, 2018 06:56pm

@ShahNoor Syed, USA very true. Being a professional engineer/ construction manager and being involved in similar undertakings, though a much smaller scope & deliverable, construction of such huge project through public sector agencies & that too filled with inefficient, having little know how of its physical, financial & other related implications, & above all corruption in all tier of its govt. machinery, is unpalatable preposition to begin with. Unless private investors both local &foreign are not involved, we would have another Saaf Pani project in the making, where previous govt. spending $4B, with nothing on the ground is undergoing NAB’s probe. In essence, such undertakings involving housing, infrastructure & other of the kind requires, a comprehensive feasibility working out economic /financial cost benefit ratios, to justify & attract private investments, followed by physical work. Unless IK does not have a team of honest, & experienced construction managers, it will be fiasco.

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al

Sep 11, 2018 07:37pm

This the Marshall Plan for the economy. IK can deliver, Inshallah.

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Ahmed

Sep 11, 2018 09:54pm

@Ahmed
Yeah, or Alladin's lamp.

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Sameer

Sep 12, 2018 03:07pm

And it is not just 5 millions homes, what about the infrastructure.. ? would require very big infrastructural planning, and MONEYS, Water, Electricity, Roads, Connectivity, easily accessible markets, schools, hospitals, business districts? The plan if made should be all encompassing.. It needs macro level planning. Only identifying the properties, acquiring the same would take ages, if some part of the land gets embroiled in legal suites,

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Sameer

Sep 12, 2018 03:10pm

And at the end of the day, if should atleast be somewhat profitable, since Pakistan does not have surplus moneys to absorb the losses. So if price are kept including profit, will the masses purchase it? and if kept such a way to absorb losses to help the masses, where will the moneys come from?

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ajit

Sep 12, 2018 06:59pm

Putting up an action plan for housing programme in 2 weeks like doing some jugglery and coming up with an adhoc policy, Being an housing expert working in India i can tell that Indian housing programme has got matured since last 2 decades starting from, Indira Awas Yojana in late 1990s, Valmik Ambedkar Awaas Yojana in early 2000s, Integrated housing and slum development programme from 2004-2009, Basic Services for urban poor under Jawaharlal nehru National Urban Renewal Mission from 2006-2011, Rajeev Awas Yojana from 2011-2015 and now the Pradhaan Mantri Awas Yojana from 2015 onward
There is contentious learning process and policy changes with time
Now India has target of housing for all by 2022 with 10 million houses for economically weaker sections, out of which 5.4 million housing units are already under construction
India is not only providing housing subsidies for economically weaker section (up to Rs 0.3 million annual income) but it is also providing interest subsidies on housing loan to Lower Income Groups (Rs 0.3 to 0.6 million annual income), Lower Middle income groups (Rs 0.6 to 1.2 million annual income) and middle income groups (1.2 to 1.8 million annual income.
It requires enormous amount of funding as grants. Over the period the grant component has remained same but India is devising other funding strategies such as use of govt land as resource, cross subsidy to economically weaker sections with higher pricing of housing of other income groups etc.

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Reader

Sep 12, 2018 07:10pm

I hope the best brains are made use of during every stage, from planning, financing, infrastructure, transport, logistics, usability, sustainability, environmental, sociological, greenery, open spaces, play grounds, schools, this is a holistic project, not just about building units / boxes and putting people inside, there is a lot of thinking to be done by many different people, so that it becomes livable, and creates a sense of happiness, well being, for all those who live in these houses, we all wish this project to succeed, and wish to help.

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Atif

Sep 12, 2018 07:27pm

Within 100 days PTI will do the following:
1). 5 million houses
2). 5 million jobs
3). 200 billion dollars will be brought back from Dubai.
4). No more power problems.
I am counting each day as it passes !
Naya Pakistan is here !!

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Seedoo

Sep 12, 2018 08:10pm

Good initiative, but who is going to pay for it? Government has no money and may need to borrow $12 billion dollars to keep the economy afloat.

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Lahori kid

Sep 12, 2018 08:37pm

As much as I appreciate the PM's initiative, the people need dams and schools more. There is no way the government can afford building 5 million homes this early when the government has all that interest on the loans already due costing billions per day, and is needing billions just to stay afloat. Priorities sir, priorities. Make policies and plans that will generate more income, which in return, will pay for the homes itself without taking a loan.

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Reality

Sep 12, 2018 10:19pm

Won't this affect Tareen?

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Concerned Citizen , USA

Sep 13, 2018 02:12am

City planning is a complicated issue, not something that can be handled in two weeks. Transportation, infrastructure, sewage, roads, environmental issues, all have to be studied in detail before embarking on construction on a massive scale. This is a serious matter, not a television program that you have to come up with an answer before the program ends. Willy nilly action in haste will be a recipe for a costly disaster. Please show some professionalism instead of playing to the media. The election campaign is over. Don't live in it perpetually like Trump does.

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anand

Sep 13, 2018 04:09am

2 weeks ! Why not two days ?

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KJ

Sep 13, 2018 06:52am

Where is the money to build these houses coming from?

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KJ

Sep 13, 2018 06:53am

Why is a military guy always in the room?

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Reader

Sep 13, 2018 10:55am

@Amjad Durrani Engineer USA. One has to make a start, a beginning, if there are dishonest people, they should be identified and removed, but not making a beginning because honest construction managers are not available is not a tenable reason. Besides honesty there will be a whole lot of other issues, but we have to start and not give up, the ball has to be kept rolling, and the job at hand has to be done, and done well, so the people who live in these houses can call it home. Yes, this is a multifaceted project, and therefore more challenging, all the more reason we as a nation should rise to this challenge, it will provide useful employment to thousands, looking forward to contribute.